The hostname of the SMTP server
If you leave this blank, sendmail (or a surrogate) will be used to send emails from your server. Sendmail exists on most Unix/Linux webservers. If you specify a SMTP hostname, Coppermine will try to send emails using SMTP (this usually is needed on Windows webservers).
[cpg1.4.0 or better required]
The username needed to authenticate on the SMTP server (this is not your coppermine admin username).
[cpg1.4.0 or better required]
The password that goes with above mentioned username (not identical to your coppermine admin password).
[cpg1.4.0 or better required]
Like all logs (that record data that would get dropped if logging was disabled), the logging features of Coppermine will have a slight performance impact as well as an impact on webspace and database usage. You should make up your mind if you actually will need the logs before enabling the feature. A log is only helpful if the admin actually looks into it.
Set, what kind of logging you want to enable. This feature records all changes that are done in coppermine's database, which is especially helpful if you're trying to debug or if there are various admins on a gallery.
All log files are written in english
[cpg1.4.0 or better required]
When enabled, all ecards that are being sent are as well written into the database, where the coppermine admin can view them. Before switching this option on, make sure that logging is legal in your country. It is also advisable to notify your users that all ecards are being logged (preferrably on the registration screen).
[cpg1.3.0 or better required]
Enabling this option records:
of the voter.
As the statistics are being kept per file, the link to the stats can be accessed on the individual file's page (displayimage.php) by clicking the link in the file info section to open the stats pop-up.
Note: The total votes may not match if you enable details and do not reset the earlier votes.
Enabling this option records:
of the visitor.
As the statistics are being kept per file, the link to the stats can be accessed on the individual file's page (displayimage.php) by clicking the link in the file info section to open the stats pop-up.
Note: The total hits may not match if you enable details and do not reset the earlier hits.
CPG will show error messages which are normally suppressed. This is helpful in troubleshooting problems with your gallery or when asking for help on the CPG Support Forums. Turn this feature off if you don't experience problems.
Turn it on (option "Everyone") if you are requesting help on the coppermine support board, so the supporters can have a look at the debug output as well. Choose the option "Admin only" when troubleshooting on your own - debug output will be only visible when you're logged in as admin, regular users or guests won't see the debug output.
May be helpful to troubleshoot problems with your coppermine install - only recommended if you know a little PHP and you can understand the additional error messages this option shows. This option only applies if debug mode is enabled.
If you have to do maintenance work on your gallery, switch it to offline mode. Only members of the admin group will be able to log in, all other users will only see "Gallery is offline". Remember to switch this option off once your maintenance work is done.
[cpg1.3.0 or better required]
The "Exchangeable image file" format (Exif) is a specification for the image file format used by digital cameras with the addition of specific metadata tags. The meta data are written by the camera and can be post-processed using certain desktop applications. Coppermine is capable of displaying some of the EXIF data within the pic info section, like date and time information, camera settings, location information, descriptions and copyright information.
CPG1.4.x (or better) comes with an EXIF manager that let's the coppermine admin decide what EXIF data should be displayed within coppermine. Please note: if the exif data don't exist within a particular image, coppermine will of course not be able to display them. Coppermine is not an editor for exif data - it just displays the exif data that exists in your pics.
To access the exif manager, go to coppermine's config and click within the section Files and thumbnails advanced settings at "Manage exif display" next to the line "Read EXIF data in JPEG files". Alternatively, you can directly enter http://yoursite.tld/your_coppermine_folder/exifmgr.php into your browser's address bar.
Tick the checkboxes in the exif manager that you want to show up in coppermine's pic info section (if the image file actually holds this particular set of information).
Included in your coppermine setup are two basic plugins:
You can find more plugins on the Coppermine Support Forum, both from Coppermine developers and from user contributions.
[cpg1.4.0 or better required]
Starting from cpg1.4.0, coppermine comes with a plugin API that enables plugin authors to modify coppermine features without hacking the core code, making upgrading easier, as modifications don't have to be re-applied every time you upgrade your coppermine version. It's recommended to use plugins instead of code modifications that require hacking the core code.
The plugin API consists of several "hooks" all over the core code of coppermine that allows plugin authors to interact with coppermine functions, overriding or adding features. There are limitations to what can be done using a plugin, as the number of hooks is limited. As a result, not every change of coppermine behaviour that could be accomplished by hacking the core code is possible to achieve using the plugin API. However, using a plugin is more elegant and usually much easier to install and get running (at least for the end user) than a crude core code hack. Installing and configuring a plugin doesn't require the coppermine admin to mess with the source code - you simply upload the plugin, install it, configure it and you're done. If the plugin has been coded as suggested and is mature enough, it should come with a configuration screen that makes editing source code irrelevant.
Unfortunately, there is no API documentation available yet.
The plugin manager is the central place from where you upload, install, configure and remove plugins. It can be acceessed in two ways:
The plugin manager organizes the plugins you have in your Coppermine directory. It is important to understand the difference between uploading plugins and installing plugins. When you copy a plugin to the Coppermine plugins folder (using the Upload button on the plugin manager or via FTP), you have merely uploaded the plugin files. The plugin is not installed yet. When you install a plugin, Coppermine runs the plugin's installation routine to configure and activate the plugin so that it will be executed when people use your gallery. To clearly show which plugins are running and which are not, the plugin manager is separated into two sections (see screen capture below):
By default, coppermine comes with some sample or code plugins (none of them are enabled by default though), additional plugins can be found on the corresponding section of coppermine's forum.
Unless you're going to code your own plugins, they usually come packaged up already, compressed into a zip file. There are two options how to upload a plugin:
After uploading the files (you may need to refresh the plugin manager page), the plugin you just uploaded should show in the list "Plugins Not Installed". If it does, you can continue to the next step and install the plugin.
Installing a plugin is fairly straightforward - just click on the 
-icon next to the plugin. The install will enable the plugin to be executed when coppermine is being run (depending on the plugin's purpose). Some plugins come with a configuration screen that will be executed right after the install - if this is the case, configure it accordingly.
Some plugins may need to be configured during install, others may have a separate configuration page that can be accessed at any time. This depends on how the plugin author wrote the plugin, so we can't give any recommendations within this documentation. Some plugins may even need to be configured before actually being uploaded (especially plugins in alpha or beta stage - these may come without a browser-driven configuration page and require you to modify the plugin's code to configure the plugin). If unsure, take a look in the unzipped plugin archive on your hard-drive - usually, plugins that require you to edit or configure anything come with a README file that tells you how to do so.
Executing a plugin might be consuming resources or not work as expected, so you might want to uninstall a plugin at some time (maybe because you just tried it out and it doesn't work as expected for you). It's recommended not to just delete the plugin's subfolder using your FTP app (because the plugin might have applied database changes that need to be undone). Instead, you should go to the plugin manager and click on the 
-icon next to an active (installed) plugin. The plugin then should get uninstalled and turn up in the list "Plugins Not installed". It's safe to leave the sources of an unneeded plugin on the server, so there should be no need to delete the plugin right after uninstall, however you may as well delete it, especially if you're short on webspace and the plugin eats up a lot of space.
To finally delete an inactive plugin from your server's plugin folder, click the -icon next to a plugin that is in the list "Plugins Not installed". If the script fails to delete a plugin this way (because of lacking permissions to do so on file/folder level), you can use your FTP app to delete the particular plugin's sub-folder within coppermine's "plugins" folder (deleting manually). As with all delete operations, you should make a local backup before deleting if you're not absolutely sure what you're doing.
As suggested above, there's no documentation available yet for plugin authors, so the only method to learn how plugins work is by looking at the source code. Examine the code of the plugins that come with coppermine, or take a look at some that are available for download from the plugin contributions sub-board on the coppermine web page.
If you accomplished writing a plugin, we ask you to share it with the coppermine community by posting it on the appropriate board (this is of course not mandatory, but we'd appreciate to see your contribution). We would welcome a user-contributed API documentation or a list of hooks as well, or other related documentation.
Coppermine can be integrated with the following bulletin boards (eg. Coppermine and your bulletin board will share the same user database).
The login integration uses your bulletin board cookies, therefore it won't work if your board cookies are not visible by Coppermine. So unless you are an expert, keep things simple and install Coppermine and your bulletin board on the same domain. Examples :
| This will work: | This won't work: |
| Bulletin board: http://yourdomain.com/board/ Coppermine: http://yourdomain.com/gallery/ |
Bulletin board: http://board.yourdomain.com/ Coppermine: http://gallery.yourdomain.com/ |
The cookie path in the forum's configuration should be set to '/' where this option is available.
Important: the cookie names of your bbs and coppermine must not be the same - they must differ!
To avoid confusion, make sure to set up both coppermine and your bbs as standalone first. Make sure they both run correctly without integration. Test all features of coppermine (like upload, registration etc.) when Coppermine is installed, before you even start integration.
Warning: If you already have users and custom groups in your coppermine database when you enable bbs integration, be aware that they will be lost. If your coppermine users have already created private albums and uploaded pics to them, they will be lost as well!
Backup: it is very advisable to backup both your coppermine database and your files before enabling bbs integration, so you can safely go back if the integration fails.
In fact you're encouraged to backup your database on a regular base, and especially before applying code changes.
From cpg1.4.x on you can use the Bridge Manager that will provide a wizard-like interface to enable/disable bridging.
The bridge manager is a new feature in cpg1.4, it is not available in older versions. Instead of manually editing coppermine code files, you can enable/disable bridging in your browser, using a wizard-like user interface. To start the bridge manager, log in as admin, choose "Admin Tools" from the navigation and the "bridge manager"
If you run the bridge manager for the first time, there will only be one button that let's you actually start the wizard (if you return to the bridge manager later, you will also find a switch to enable/disable bridging) click it.
Note: with each step in the wizard, some information is being written to the coppermine database. Unlike other wizards (mostly on your local machine), the bridge manager doesn't have a ""cancel"-button! Once you have enabled bridging and everything is working fine, you shouldn't change any values just out of curiosity, as they will get written to the database, which might result in a bridging that used to work not working any more after "playing" with it.
In the first actual step of the wizard "choose application to bridge coppermine with", you have to choose the application you actually want to coppermine with. Note that you must have this application already installed on your webserver, it has to be properly configured and must be up-and-running. Don't use the bridge manager yet if you only plan to integrate coppermine with another application later.
If you have a custom-made bridge file that is not available in the wizard, choose the radio button in front of the text field and enter the name of your bridge file there, without the extension ".inc.php" (the bridge file must reside in the coppermine sub-folder "bridge").
Click "next"
The next steps depend on the application you have chosen to bridge with: some applications need URLs to be entered, or paths. Some need mySQL table information or cookie data to be entered, others don't. The point of the wizard is that it will only "ask" you the relevant settings for your application - if one or more items of the following description doesn't turn up for your application, there's no need to worry - just keep filling in the mandatory information and then hit "next". However, you have to understand that coppermine can proof-check only some of your input - some input goes unvalidated.
If a reset button (
) is being displayed next to an input field, the field value doesn't have the default value. It can be perfectly OK to have a non-default value in a field, however you should keep in mind that if you have "played" with the bridge manager before, previous settings might exist in a field that are not correct - do not light-heartedly skip a step without paying attention to it. Use the reset button to revert to the default value (not necessarily "quor" default value though).